Stretch, grab a late afternoon cup of caffeine and get
caught up on the most important news of the day
with our Coffee Break newsletter. These are the stories
that will fill you in on the world that's spinning outside
of your office window - at the moment that you get a
chance to take a breath.

On Thursday morning, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) risked being expelled from the U.S. Senate by releasing confidential documents to the public. He made a big show of the act, calling it his "I am Spartacus" moment, but one of the documents actually revealed a very positive fact about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh — his opposition to using racial profiling in airport security following the 9/11 attacks.

When Booker released the documents, he declared, "I'm knowingly violating the rules." He went on to say, "This is about the closest I'll ever come in my life to an 'I am Spartacus' moment."

This statement referred to the famous scene involving Spartacus, a Thracian slave who led a slave revolt against Rome in the 70s B.C. When Spartacus' revolution ultimately failed, the Romans decided to crucify the revolting slaves. In the 1960 American film "Spartacus," based on the novel by the imprisoned Communist Howard Fast, the revolting slaves each declared, "I am Spartacus!" in order to share the fate of their revolutionary leader.

Cory Booker dared Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to file paperwork to kick him out of the Senate, acting as though his stand for transparency was an epic moment like Spartacus's slave revolt. He was roundly mocked for this grandstanding, especially given the rumors that Booker is planning to run for president in 2020.

Ironically, one of the email chains Cory Booker risked his career to release publicly actually paints Kavanaugh in a very positive light.

These are the 4 documents marked committee confidential that I brought up in my questioning of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh last night --> https://t.co/2RZkY2FS9a

"My own view is that, as required by traditional Equal Protection standards, we must at least consider how to construct a race-neutral system," Gonzales wrote. "I can imagine such a system that could be effective, perhaps even more effective than one based on racial classifications. For instance, you could break air passengers down into groups of those with/without U.S. passports, those with/withiout recent international travel, those with/without criminal history, et cetera, and subject persons in higher risk categories to higher levels of scrutiny."